Iowa 19 Minnesota 12

MINNEAPOLIS – A comeback bid in the second half fell just short on Sunday afternoon when the No. 5 Minnesota wrestling team fell to No. 2 Iowa 19-12, snapping the Gophers’ seven-dual unbeaten streak. Danny Zilverberg, Cody Yohn, Scott Glasser and Kevin Steinhaus picked up wins for the Gophers while the Hawkeyes earned the Big Ten Dual Meet Championship with an 8-0-0 conference record.

The Hawkeyes opened the day with three-straight wins by way of decision to build a 9-0 lead. No. 1 Matt McDonough bested No. 5 Zach Sanders 10-3 in the opening match at 125 lbs. before No. 7 Tony Ramos tallied a 7-3 decision over No. 20 David Thorn. Iowa also scored three points in the highly touted 141 lbs. match between No. 3 Montell Marion and No. 2 Mike Thorn. Thorn scored a late takedown to even the match at 3-3 but his Hawkeye counterpart escaped in the closing seconds to come away with the 4-3 win at 141 lbs.. Minnesota (15-4-1 overall, 6-1-1 Big Ten) would finally break onto the scoreboard in the 149 lbs. match when Danny Zilverberg outlasted Mark Ballweg, scoring a takedown in the overtime period to pick up a 5-3 decision and cut Iowa’s lead to 9-3. The Hawkeyes (14-0-1, 8-0-0) would close out the first half with a four-point major decision when No. 7 Derek St. John topped Matt Mincey 20-8 at 157 lbs. to take a 13-3 lead into intermission.

But Minnesota would come out reenergized in the second half and score three-straight wins to cut the lead to 12-13. No. 12 Cody Yohn held off No. 13 Aaron Janssen to pick up a 6-4 decision at 165 lbs, No. 15 Scott Glasser upset No. 11 Ethen Lofthouse with a 7-5 decision at 174 lbs. and No. 8 Kevin Steinhaus topped No. 11 Grant Gambrall at 184 lbs. with a 5-4 win via decision.

However, one point was as close as the Gophers would get as Iowa closed out the dual with a pair of decisions from No. 8 Luke Lofthouse at 197 lbs. and No. 15 Blake Rasing at heavyweight to pick up the 19-12 win and extend the Hawkeyes’ unbeaten streak to 77-straight duals.

The loss to Iowa, coupled with Penn State’s win over Wisconsin on Friday, places the Gophers in a tie for second in the Big Ten with the Nittany Lions. Minnesota is returns to action in two weeks at the 2011 Big Ten Wrestling Championships on March 5-6 at Northwestern University. The two-day event is the national qualifier for the conference and begins with an 11 a.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Central) session on Saturday, March 5. The Sunday session starts at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central) with the finals airing live on the Big Ten Network at 4 p.m. Eastern (3 p.m. Central).